FACT: Obama Explains The Constitution's "Fundamental Flaw" Was Slavery. The out of context video the RNC links
to contains audio from a September 6, 2001 program called "Slavery and the
Constitution" on WBEZ Chicago. On the show, Obama explained that the "fundamental
flaw" was "Africans at the time were not considered as part of the
polity that was of concern to the framers." In addition, the framers did
not "see...it as a moral problem involving persons of moral worth."
[WBEZ Radio, accessed 5/21/09]

Others Who Have Made Similar Statements
To Barack Obama:

George W. Bush: "Their
[abolitionists] moral vision caused Americans to examine our hearts, to correct
our Constitution, and to teach our children the dignity and equality of
every person of every race. By a plan known only to Providence,
the stolen sons and daughters of Africa helped to awaken the conscience of America.
The very people traded into slavery helped to set America free. My nation's journey toward justice has not been easy and it is not
over. The racial bigotry fed by slavery did not end with slavery or with
segregation. And many of the issues that still trouble America have roots in the bitter
experience of other times." [Remarks
by President Bush on Goree
Island, 7/8/03,
emphasis added]

Condoleezza Rice:
"In our first Constitution my ancestors were three-fifths of a man. What does
that say about American democracy at its outset? I've said it's a great birth defect. And we've had to overcome a birth
defect, and like any birth defect, it continues to have an impact on us. It's
why we have such a hard time talking about race and dealing with race."
[Council on Foreign Relations, 7/18/08,
emphasis added]

Colin Powell:
"It took us a while to recognize that we
could not live our Constitution truly unless we eliminated slavery, and
hundreds of thousands of young men fought a civil war to end slavery and then
it took us a long time to get rid of the vestiges of slavery and we're still
working on it to this very day." [CNN, 7/11/03,
emphasis added]